Big tippers to bring Maury's an overdue facelift

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Maury's gets a new lease on life.: Maury's Tiny Cove owner Matt Huesman spruces up the 64 year-old West-Side landmark. "Failure is not an option." said Huesman

A stained glass sign behind the bar. / The Enquirer/Glenn Hartong

While sprucing up Maury’s Tiny Cove in hopes of retaining his regulars and attracting new diners to the 64-year-old landmark West Side steakhouse, owner Matt Huesman declares: “Failure is not an option.” Hear what else Huesman has to say in a video at Cincinnati.com. • For information about Maury’s menu and hours, go to www.maurys-steakhouse.com or call 513-662-2683.

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Talk about big tippers. One guy’s gratuity at Maury’s Tiny Cove consisted of 18 scoops of mulch. He had it dumped in the restaurant’s flower beds, not on his table.

Another visitor to the venerable West Side steakhouse repainted a sign holding a seven-foot-tall bull gripping a gallon-sized martini. A trio of interior designers gave their waiter plans for sprucing up the decor, inside and out, of the iconic eatery.

Their tips will enable Maury’s to be closed Sept. 1-3 for some overdue renovations.

Matt Huesman, owner of the 64-year-old Cheviot landmark, is the first to admit the place needs a facelift.

“We have to revitalize Maury’s and bring some new life to it,” he said while standing on a ladder and installing a ventilation duct cover in the side dining room he’s renovating.

“If we don’t,” he added with a worried look not aimed at the screwdriver he was wielding, “we’re not going to be around much longer.”

Since taking over Maury’s in January 2009, he’s worked tirelessly to bring the place back to its heyday of the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s when it was a Tristate destination location known for the quality of its hand-carved steaks and its throwback, nightclub atmosphere of low ceilings, low lights and red and black Naugahyde booths. Huesman regularly puts in 80-hour weeks as lunch-time chef, evening host, part-time bartender, delivery driver, janitor, entertainment booking agent, Wednesday-night trivia quiz master and gardener.

“We’ve got the food and service where we want it,” he said. He lifted a new ceiling tile and slid it in place next to the vent cover. “I see that in the online comments we get.”

He regularly reads those unsigned critiques on various social networking soapboxes. Maury’s routinely earns high marks for its signature steaks and pasta dishes. The decor, however, usually gets the four Ds: Drab, Dark, Dingy and Dated.

“We need to update things to last for another 64 years,” Huesman said.

“If Maury’s isn’t around,” he added, while grabbing another ceiling tile, “lots of people will lose a place where they have great memories.”

He knows Maury’s is filled with memories of first-date dinners, birthday parties and wedding receptions. He also knows there’s room for plenty more. That’s why, as he said, smiling: “Failure is not an option.”

Huesman recently told a few regulars about his planned changes. They weren’t earth-shattering, except that this is Maury’s, a place that is like a timepiece from the 1950s.

He told them about his intentions: Brighten the interior by giving the original, dark wood paneling a fresh coat of light-hued paint. Redo the landscaping. Install new carpeting. Paint the exterior. Spiff up the signs. Take down the collection of bull horns and bull figurines – given to the restaurant’s founder, the late Maury Bibent – and put up the Huesman family’s collection of Royal Doulton literary character jugs.

The regulars put out the word: Maury’s needs help.

The word spread. Quickly. The West Side, and all of Cincinnati, for that matter, is just a big Mayberry.

“We’re doing this because Maury’s is a small, cozy place where everybody feels comfortable,” said Teresa Hofmeyer, one of the three designers planning the makeover.

She’s also doing this to preserve her memories. “I came to Maury’s with my dad on the night of our father-daughter dance at school,” she said. “My husband, Anthony, took me to Maury’s on our first date.”

Mary Padro, another of the designing trio, sees restaurants like Maury’s as an endangered species.

“In our society everything is so disposable,” she said. “We are so quick to tear things down that we lose the charm and character of existing buildings and businesses.”

She noted that the West Side is not particularly flush with fine-dining options.

Decades ago every neighborhood had a Maury’s, a local steakhouse, a warm and inviting place where locals gathered and foreigners from all sides of town were welcome. Chain restaurants, economic downturns, deteriorating neighborhoods and worries about eating red meat led to a distinct decline in these dining spots.

“There aren’t many places like Maury’s,” said Lou Amend, a regular for more than half a century. He and his wife, Sharon, knew the restaurant’s founder. They went to school with his son. They’re planning to celebrate their upcoming 50th wedding anniversary at Maury’s.

When told of the facelift, they gave it their seal of approval.

“It’s needed,” Sharon Amend said. “Maury’s must be around forever.”

Bob Peters agreed.

Peters owns Green Township’s Peters Nursery. A local couple, a pair of Maury’s frequent fliers, hired him anonymously to do the restaurant’s landscaping. That’s where the 18 scoops of mulch came from. “We put down the mulch after removing three trucks-full of noxious weeds and wild trees,” Peters said.

The job is a first for him. Never, in his 42 years as a landscaper, has he done this kind of work for a business and had it paid for by a customer.

“Matt deserves this help,” Peters said. “He works hard. The changes will help Maury’s succeed.”

Huesman admitted to being “overwhelmed by the generosity” of Maury’s big tippers. He added that he’s making these changes with “a great deal of trepidation.” He knows his customers tend to be a bit hidebound. When the restaurant changed the brand of its pickles, diners protested until the original gherkins returned.

“But we’re not going to survive,” he observed, “if we keep doing what we’re doing.”

Maury’s must survive and thrive, insisted Jack Ellis, owner of Cheviot Auto Body and a weekly visitor to the steakhouse for 28 years. “This feels like home. Where else can you get that feeling?”

Huesman appreciates Maury’s homey atmosphere. “To many people,” he said, “this is their home away from home, their storehouse of memories.”

That makes Huesman feel less like the owner and more like Maury’s caretaker.

“I’m the keeper of their memories,” he said, “the custodian of their sweet dreams.”

As their custodian, he feels confident about making these changes. The world needs places where strangers can feel at home.